Tesoro

By Staff - The Climate Center, January 23, 2021

By Jean Tepperman - East Bay Express - July 22, 2020

California should begin gradually reducing output from its oil refineries in order to avoid climate catastrophe and to make the transition to clean energy as equitable as possible. That's the conclusion of a major new report released July 6 by Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), endorsed by more than 40 environmental and social justice organizations.

While most people agree on the need to use less fossil fuel, many fear that requiring refineries to reduce production could lead to higher gasoline prices and a big economic hit for workers and communities that depend on refineries for income. Report-author Greg Karras responded, "If we start now, doing it gradually, it will give us the time to replace refinery-dependent economics." The report calls for cutting production 4 to 7 percent a year, starting in 2021.

California has set targets for cutting carbon emissions between now and 2050: the state's share of global cuts needed to keep temperature increases below catastrophic levels. Because the carbon that causes climate change builds up in the atmosphere, California has a carbon "budget"—the total amount it can emit from now until 2050. According to Decommissioning California Refineries, California will have to refine much less oil per year to avoid blowing through this carbon "budget" by about 2037.

"California is the biggest oil-refining center in Western North America," Karras said. "Oil refined here emits more carbon than all other activities in the state combined." Even if all other sources of carbon are reduced on schedule, Karras said, "we must refine much less oil if we hope to meet the state's carbon limit."

"We have to break free from our toxic relationship with oil before it takes us over a cliff," Karras said. "When you're in a car heading toward a cliff, it matters when you start putting on the brakes."

The sooner we start, the more likely we are to escape the worst impacts of climate change.

The issue is not just climate, said Andres Soto of CBE. He pointed out that refinery pollution is concentrated in communities like Richmond, centers of racial and economic injustice.

"Only 20 percent of Richmond is Euro-American," he said.

And the health consequences of having a refinery as a neighbor are severe.

Rodeo, another Contra Costa refinery town, "is in the 98th percentile for asthma," said resident Maureen Brennan, and it has high rates of skin disease, autoimmune disease and cancer—all linked to refinery-generated pollution.

Retired refinery worker Steve Garey, past president of a United Steelworkers local in Washington state, said starting now to plan for reduced refinery production could actually benefit refinery workers, since "the movement away from fossil fuels and toward renewables is going to accelerate. It's an economic reality. Renewables are cheaper than fossil fuel and getting cheaper all the time."

Recently when the pandemic cut demand for gasoline, Garey said, the Marathon refinery in Martinez shut down, leaving the workers and community stranded.

The current drop in oil use, Karras said, gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn away from the cliff and build a cleaner and more equitable recovery.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 1, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Deepwater Horizon still creating an environment of fear and intimidation five years on - By Charles Digges, Bellona.Org, March 27, 2015
• How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work; Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in neighboring states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries - Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, March 5, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Baja Labor Leaders Learned Tactics from Their Efforts in US - By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2015
• Banana Workers’ Strike Highlights Abuses by Corporations in Costa Rica - Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes, TierraAmerica, March 18, 2015
• Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and Why Unions are Needed     - By Duane E. Campbell, Talking Union, March 23, 2015
• El Salvador Farmers Successfully Defy Monsanto - By Dahr Jamail, TruthOut, March 23, 2015
• Father of Mexican worker killed in farm accident attends vigil in Albion; Daniel Larios Hernandez seeks better working and living conditions for migrant workers - By Tom Rivers, Orleans Hub, March 20, 2015; related [video]
• Mexican farmworkers strike over low wages, blocking harvest -  By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2015
• Mexico: Labor Rebellion in San Quintín; Farmworkers on Strike - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, March 30, 2015
• Occupy agriculture! Polish farmers sit in for land and freedom - By Justin Rose, The Ecologist, March 19, 2015
• Storytelling Spotlight: Farm Worker Oscar Otzoy - By Megan Campbell, Why Hunger, March 25, 2015
• Thousands of Mexican farmworkers march 15 miles as strike talks continue - Staff, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2015
• Why Mexico’s Farmworkers Who Harvest Our Food Are on Strike - By Sonali Kolhatkar, TruthDig, March 26, 2015
• Your Seafood may be Caught by Slaves - By Myriam Fallon, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015 [related] Major US Tuna Brands Connected to Slavery at Sea and Human Rights Abuses - By John Hocevar, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015

USW Refinery Strike:

• Conservationists Help Workers Strike for Refinery Safety - By Steve Curwood, Living On Earth, March 20, 2015
• East Bay Residents Push for Tougher Refinery Regulations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 23, 2015
• Refinery Strikers Protest at Chicago BP HQ [video] - By LaborBeat, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Letter to Marathon Management Regarding Texas City Memorial - By Walter E. ‘Sonny’ Sanders, United Steelworkers, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro Carson Strike 2015 [video] - By USW Local 675, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro union employees returning to work - By Staff, Argus Media, March 25, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Fracking Town’s Desperate Laid-off Workers: ‘They Don’t Tell You It’s All a Lie’; The boom and bust in North Dakota has trapped people there, with little hope of work or escape - By Evelyn Nieves, Alternet, March 28, 2015
• GE expands job cuts at Lufkin oil unit to 575 from 330 - By Ankit Ajmera, Reuters, March 25, 2015
• Low oil prices force 2 Oklahoma companies to cut jobs - Associated Press, March 27, 2015
• North American Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse - By Thomas Black, Bloomberg, March 26, 2015
• North Dakota oil rig count drops below 100 - Associated Press, March 25, 2015
• Rigzone: Layoffs more likely than hiring - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, March 25, 2015
• Shell cuts staff numbers in North Sea operations - Associated Press, March 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Climate action and resource workers: Discussing 'just transition' with Karen Cooling - By Lindsey Bertrand, Rabble.Ca, March 31, 2015
• The fight for $15 is the fight for a livable planet - By Phil Aroneanu, 350.org, March 30, 2015
• San Diego Labor Goes Green: New Environmental Caucus Formed - By Jim Miller, San Diego Free Press, February 2, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Martinez Environmental Group Adopts Resolution In Opposition to Single Employee Train Crews and on Train Crew Fatigue - By Martinez Environmental Group, March 30, 2015
• ONTC and union reach five-year deal - By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles, The Nugget, March 23, 2015
• Washington Fire Chiefs Demand Transparency on Crude Oil Trains - By Sydney Brownstone, The Stranger, March 25, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Adjournment of Coroner’s Inquest into Lakeland Mills Explosion to consider “new evidence” only furthers need for a public inquiry - By Stephen Hunt and Brad West, United Steelworkers, March 25, 2015
• Latest numbers suggest unionized coal mines safer, more productive than nonunion operations - By Taylor Kuykendall and Hira Fawad, SNL, March 30, 2015
• Monsanto’s Roundup: Most Popular Weed Killer in U.S.; ‘Probably’ Causes Cancer, WHO Report Says - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 23, 2015

Other News:

• Activists Shape Oakland Coliseum Area Plan; a large coalition of activist groups pushed successfully for affordable housing goals, local hiring, and environmental mitigations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 18, 2015
• Copper up, FCX down as workers halt production at Grasberg - By editor, Mining.Com, March 20, 2015
• Oil workers in West Texas and New Mexico were underpaid millions, Labor Department says - Associated Press, March 30, 2015
• Shell Oilsands Workers To Carry Electronic Trackers On The Job - By Cameron Langford, CBC.ca, March 19, 2015
• Union Organizer Wants to ID Snoops - By Cameron Langford, Courthouse News Service, March 26, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 19, 2015; image by Jon Flanders

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conference: Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Florida’s Climate Change Gag Order Claims Its First Victim - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, March 18, 2015
• A Rational Agriculture Is Incompatible with Capitalism - By Fred Magdoff, Monthly Review, March 2015
• Who Controls Our Food? - By Nick Dearden, New Internationalist, March 4, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• After 6-Week Strike, Oil Workers Say They Have “Won Vast Improvements in Safety and Staffing” - By David Moberg, In These Times, March 16, 2015
• All across Australia, solidarity with USW oil workers - United Steelworkers, March 17, 2015
• Holding the line against Big Oil - By Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker, March 18, 2015
• Minor fire extinguished at Shell Martinez, Calif. refinery - Reuters, March 13, 2015
• New Fire At Troubled Exxon Refinery Quickly Extinguished -By Sacha Feinman, Think Progress, March 12, 2015
• Refinery deal struck, Bay Area gasoline prices set to fall - By George Avalos, Bay Area News Group, March 13, 2015
• Solidarity in the heartland: Chicago Fight for $15 joins striking BP oil workers on the picketline - By Bob Simpson, Daily Kos, March 13, 2015
• Striking Motiva workers approve contract - By Sarah Scully, Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2015
• Striking oil workers emerge victorious thanks in part to green group solidarity - By Kate Aronoff, Waging Nonviolence, March 13, 2015
• Striking refinery employees could come back to work by end of March - By Andrea Rumbaugh, FuelFix, March 18, 2015
• Striking workers days away from returning to plants - By Sarah Scully, Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2015
• U.S. Refinery Strikes Now Turn to Local Negotiations - By Lynn Doan and Barbara Powell, Bloomberg, March 12, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Bakken Oil: The Anarchy of the Market - By Richard Mellor, We Know What's Up, March 17, 2015 [editor's note: the IWW EUC does not endorse the article writer's definition of "anarchy", so please do not send us angry letters!]
• Carbo Ceramics cuts jobs, dividend as oil plunges - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, March 17, 2015
• ConocoPhillips to lay off 200 Canadian workers - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, March 18, 2015
• Evacuate the Economy (or By the Way, Your Home Is On Fire) - By Rebecca Solnit, Common Dreams, March 11, 2015
• Faces of Coal - By Nuck Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, March 17, 2015
• Global Wave of New Coal Plants is Going Bust, New Report Finds - By Mary Anne Hitt and Nicole Ghio, The Sierra Club, March 16, 2015
• Legendary Coal Miner Says We Must Stop the Insane Practice of Mountaintop Removal - By Jeff Biggers, EcoWatch, March 16, 2015
• Oil producer Nexen cuts workforce by 400 - By Ryan Holeywell, FuelFix, March 17, 2015
• Texas Oil/Gas Industry Barometer Falling; Job Losses Climbing - By Joe Fisher, NGI Shale Daily, March 13, 2015

Health and Safety:

• America is literally on fire: How out-of-control oil spills are destroying our population centers - By David Dayen, Salon, March 10, 2015
• Amid Evidence of Illnesses, Activists Call on Electronics Industry to Boost Workplace Safety - By Nicki Lisa Cole, Truthout, March 17, 2015
• Cement-factory roof collapses in Bangladesh, dozens feared trapped - By Julhas Alam, Associated Press, March 12, 2015
• Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails - By Marcus Stern, New York Times, March 12, 2015
• Oilfield safety a concern as companies cut costs during downturn - Bloomberg, March 12, 2015
• Friday the 13th Nightmare for Workers on Chevron’s Barrow Island - By Ashleigh Telford, Maritime Union of Australia, March 13, 2015
• Kelowna man dies fracking - By Bill Everitt, Kelowna News, March 12, 2015
• Linc Energy alleged to have exposed workers to dangerous gases at experimental plant near Chinchilla, west of Brisbane - By Mark Willacy and Mark Solomons, Australian Broadcasting Company News, March 17, 2015
• McDonald’s Workers Nationwide File OSHA Complaints Alleging Hazardous Work Conditions - By Jennifer Baker, Revolution News, March 17, 2015
• Rail workers initiate forums to discuss fight for safety - By Jack Parker and Jim Altenberg, The Militant, March 23, 2015
• 10 Reasons Why BP Got Off and Offshore Oil Drilling Just Got More Dangerous - By Antonia Juhasz, Rolling Stone, March 12, 2015
• A Terrible, Terrible Choice; Gulf of Mexico Oil Industry Veteran Speaks Out - By Cherri Foytlin, Bridge the Gulf, March 13, 2015
• Union alleges Kitimat smelter emissions turn residents into 'guinea pigs' - The Canadian Press, March 17, 2015
• Union warnings of lethal overcrowding ignored - By RMT Press Office, RMT.ORG, March 13, 2015

Other News:

• Building people power before the Paris climate summit - By Jeremy Brecher, Waging Nonviolence, March 5, 2015
• Seattle doesn’t want Shell’s stinkin’ Arctic drilling fleet - By Ana Sofia Knauf, Grist, March 5, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Steve Zeltser - Labor Video Project, February 13, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Striking USW 5 Tesoro oil workers rallied on February 12, 2015 at the refinery in Pacheco, California. They were joined by CNA nurses and environmentalists who raised the issue of health and safety for not only the workers but the communities. This is the first national strike since 1980 and the companies have record profits.

Some workers face extreme fatigue with 14 days of continuous work and also short staffed crews that threaten their safety and the communities.

Additionally protesters charged that Richmond Chevron refinery managers are threatening to continue to operate the refinery with replacement workers if the USW workers go on strike

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 10, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Refinery Strike Is Not Just About Safety; It's About Pollution - By Mike Ludwig, Truthout, March 6, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• California State Senate holds hearing in Torrance on refinery explosion - Associated Press, March 5, 2015
• Contract worker speaks on safety issues in US oil strike - World Socialist Web Site, YouTube, March 4, 2015
• 5,000 Oil Workers Enter Third Week of Strike Over Safety and Working Conditions - The Real News, YouTube, February 21, 2015
• It's all about safety - United Steelworkers, YouTube, February 13, 2015
• Loera: Refineries have long ignored workers' pleas for safety - By Debbie Loera, Houston Chronicle, March 4, 2015
• More labor board charges filed in Steelworkers strike - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 4, 2015; [response] Steelworkers fire back over unfair labor practice charges - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 5, 2015
• Steelworkers rally at Shell HQ as talks set to resume Wednesday - By Sarah Scully, FuelFix, March 6, 2015
• Strike Solidarity Guerrilla Movie Night -  Peter Menchini, Vimeo, March 5, 2015
• The United Steelworkers’ intimate ties to Wall Street - By Shannon Jones, World Socialist Website, March 6, 2015
• USW Statement on March 4 Talks with Oil Industry - United Steelworkers, March 4, 2015
• [Historic Archives] Chevron Oil Refinery Strike, January 31, 1969 - San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive

Carbon Bubble:

• “Default Monday”: Oil & Gas Companies Face Their Creditors as the Fracking Bubble Bursts - By Wolf Richter, Naked Capitalism, March 5, 2015
• Oil sector loses jobs in February - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, March 6, 2015
• Public ownership of oil refineries will see Alberta through low oil prices, says AFL President Gil McGowan - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.Ca, March 5, 2015

Energy Democracy:

• Greece Revokes Key Authorization for Foreign-Run Mine - By Michael Lerner, Blouin News, March 3, 2015
• With corporate energy, we're stuck in the dark ages; let's switch to public ownership - By Calum McGregor, Open Democracy, March 4, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Animation of Fire at Chevron's Richmond Refinery - Chemical Safety Board, YouTube, April 19, 2013
• Behind the Curve - Chemical Safety Board, YouTube, October 28, 2014
• Blast survivors tell harrowing stories at Lakeland inquest - By Mark Nielsen, Prince George Citizen, March 5, 2015
• Reporting on Workers’ Comp [Podcast] - By Nicole Collins Bronzan, ProPublica, March 9, 2015

Other News:

• Cross Harbor rail tunnel idea debated at hearing: Union workers differ with civic and community board over proposal - By Christopher Barca, Queens Chronicle, March 5, 2015
• Declaration of South African Food Sovereignty Campaign - By the Food Sovereignty Campaign Coordination Committee, Climate and Capitalism, March 1, 2015
• How a small town's green energy plans went disastrously wrong - By Roy MacGregor, The Globe and Mail, March 6, 2015
• The Site C Dam and Christy Clark, union maid - By Rod Mickleburgh, Rabble.Ca, March 5, 2015
• Study emphasizes the enormous cost of poorly regulated toxic chemicals - European Trade Union Institute, March 6, 2015
• Uber, Lyft, and the growing problem of temp jobs - By Heather Smith, Grist, March 4, 2015
• We want system change not climate change - By Andrea Ferrant, Geneviéve Savigny, Unai Aranguren, La Via Campesina, March 4, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 5, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Five years post-explosion, Tesoro strikers still push for safety measures - By J.M. Wong, Seattle Globalist, March 3, 2015
• Op-Ed: Oil refineries need to heed concerns, implement safety improvements - By Antonia Juhasz, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Crossing the Line: Money, Safety, Power; What Makes a Union Strike at a Bad Time for Oil and Gas? - By Dianna Wray, Houston News, March 3, 2015
• Daughter of Man Killed at Texas City Refinery Watches USW Strike - By Dianna Wray, Houston News, March 3, 2015
• ‘Disappointed’ in union, Shell says it is hiring relief workers - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Environmental groups join St. Charles Parish refinery workers on picket line - By Jennifer Larino, The New Orleans Times-Picayunne, February 25, 2015
• Letter to USW Oil Workers - By Leo W. Gerard, Thomas M. Conway and others, United Steelworkers, February 26, 2015 [related] This is What We're Fighting For.
• LyondellBasell accuses Steelworkers of threatening returning workers - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Shell unveils plan to replace USW refining workers - By Lynn Doan and Zain Shauk, Bloomberg, March 3, 2015
• Steelworkers’ local reminds strikebreakers of their union oath - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Striking USW refining workers, Shell to resume labor talks Wednesday - By Lynn Doan and Lucia Kassai, Bloomberg, March 2, 2015
• USW strike is about worker safety - By Susan Criss, The Daily News, March 3, 2015, February 18, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Bank of England Issues Warning Over Looming 'Carbon Bubble' Threat - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, March 4, 2015
• Kentucky Doesn’t Have Any More Working Union Coal Miners - By Erica Peterson and Whitney Jones, WFPL 89.3 FM, February 26, 2015
• Nabors cuts nearly 3,500 jobs as U.S. drilling takes big hit - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• US running out of room to store oil; price collapse next? - Associated Press, March 3, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Coal Mine Explosion in Ukraine Traps Dozens - Associated Press, March 3, 2015
• 'Fracking' and worker safety: U.S. oil boom is in full swing, as are questions about hazards - By Tom Musick, Safety + Health, November 23, 2014
• Inspector General Auditing FRA's Railroad Bridge Safety Oversight - OSHA Online, March 2, 2015
• Oil — The risks outweigh the rewards - Editorial, Daily World, February 28, 2015
• Tank Car Debate Rolls On - By Jerry Laws, OSHA Online, March 1, 2015
• 350 Seattle Hub Unanimously Approves Support of Two Railroad Workers (United) Resolutions  - By 350 Seattle, March 4, 2015, February 26, 2015
• Transporting Tar Sands “As Dangerous” As Shale Oil - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, March 2, 2015

Other News:

• American mass transit is dying - By Henry Grabar, Salon, March 1, 2015
• Commentary: The risks that arise from violating CSR norms - By Mark N. Sills and Jennifer L. Egsgard, Northern Miner, March 2, 2015
• Community Voices: Fighting for the Rights of Farmworkers in the Border Region - By Andrianna Natsoulas, Why Hunger, March 2, 2015
• Goodbye, Mr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy’s passing reminds us of the spirit of wonder and discovery represented by Spock and the Star Trek series - By Leigh Phillips, Jacobin, March 2, 2015
• Oregon's signature solar energy project built on foundation of false hopes and falsehoods - By Ted Sickinger & Jeff Manning, The Oregonian, February 27, 2015
• The Problem with the Environmental Movement - By Alexis Goggans, The Equation, February 20, 2015
• The Risk of Climate Catastrophe Is So Severe, We Had to Break the Law, Say Activists - By Peter Rugh, Vice News, March 2, 2015
• Tiny radio stations a big tool against gentrification - By Anna Goren, Seattle Globalist, February 19, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Steve Zeltser - The Daily Censored, February 16, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The epidemic of refinery explosions and derailments  leading to massive explosions seem to increase by the week. Behind this collapse of health and safety protection according to advocates is the failure to protect health and safety whistleblowers. The fear of workers to complain about serious health and safety problems is a key part of this failure. Now a Federal lawyer at OSHA Darrell Whitman has charged along with health and safety whistleblowers that the agency management and the DOL have not been enforcing the law to protect not only the whistleblowers but the health and safety of all Americans.

In an explosive document sent to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez in May 2014, Federal OSHA attorney Darrell Whitman, charged that there is systemic corruption in the agency that is preventing the protection of health and safety whistleblowers. As a result of making these charges with extensive documentation, Whitman has himself become a target of workplace bullying and moves to terminate him from the agency. In fact according to Whipple his supervisor Joshua Paul who is also an attorney at the agency ordered him to falsify federal documents  which is a criminal felony. On February 21, 2015 the agency sent a mover to his house and took his documents and badge preventing him from doing his work.
Whitman has a lot of years under his belt. He has been working over 10 years for state and Federal agencies so he knows a bit about how the Federal government operates.

His latest job was as an investigator in the OSHA program that investigates health and safety complaints by workers in industries from oil, rail, trucking and other companies in OSHA region 9 which covers nearly 40 million workers in the West.
As one of the 6 OSHA staff in this unit, there have been only three that actually doing investigations. Whitman investigates whether OSHA complaints by workers are valid and then makes a determination of whether or not their complaints are serious enough to gain a merit status. Under Federal law this merit status provides full back pay and can provide punitive damages to workers who are terminated for making their health and safety complaints.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 26, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• OSHA Whistleblower Investigator Blows Whistle on Own Agency; Employee says the federal whistleblower program isn’t protecting whistleblowers or the public - By Vicky Nguyen, Liz Wagner and Felipe Escamilla, NBC Bay Area, February 24, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Flare-up roars at BP Whiting Refinery - By Joseph S. Pete, NWI.com, February 23, 2015
• On strike against the next "accident" - By Ragina Johnson, David Judd and Elizabeth Schulte, Socialist Worker, February 24, 2015
• Some contractors (unionized) not so bad, Steelworkers say - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 25, 2015
• Steelworkers union, Occupy Wall Street dump manure at ExxonMobil Torrance refinery - Staff, Daily Breeze, February 22, 2015
• Strike at U.S. Refineries Widens; Workers Walk Out of Three More Facilities - By Erin Ailworth and Alison Sider, Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2015
• Union chief says U.S. refinery strike could spread - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, February 24, 2015
• Union is striking for safety, Steelworkers’ international head says - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 24, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Bill to regulate vans and shuttles for railroad crews draws fans and foes - By Cathy McKitrick, Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 23, 2015
• Canada: Oil train accident shows new safety rules inadequate - Associated Press, February 23, 20155
• CN derailment shows new safety standards inadequate, watchdog says - By Paola Loriggio, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2015
• Report Predicting 10 Oil-train Derailments Per Year Underscores Need for Immediate Moratorium on Crude-by-rail; Dangerous Trains Risk Hundreds of Deaths, $4 Billion in Damages Annually - By Jared Margolis, Center for Biological Diversity, February 23, 2015
• Unifor reaches late-night deal with CN - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.ca, February 24, 2015
• Why bitumen isn’t necessarily safer than Bakken - By David Thomas, Railway Age, February 23, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Labor negotiations at a standstill at Bruce Mansfield power plant - By Sam Kusic, Pittsburgh Business Times, February 24, 2015
• Oil Giant Shell Shelves Dirty Tar Sands Mine - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, February 24, 2015
• Is Oil Returning To $100 Or Dropping To $10? - By Martin Tillier, OilPrice.com, February 22, 2015
• Shell pulls plug on long-delayed Alberta oil sands mine - By Jeff Lewis, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2015
• Shell Withdraws From Largest Tar Sands Project Yet - By Ari Phillips, Think Progress, February 25, 2015
• Texas oil tool companies cutting more than 1,100 jobs - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 23, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• Labour and Nature: Power in Numbers - By Tegan Tallullah, Post Growth Institute, February 24, 2015

Other News:

• Climate Strike! - By Sean Farmelo, Slaney St, January 18, 2015
• Flood Wall Street goes on trial - #Flood11 Collective Statement, February 24, 2015
• Government Documents Reveal Canadian Embassy Backed Mining Abuses in Mexico - By United Steelworkers Union and Mining Watch Canada, Mining Watch Canada, February 25, 2015; [related]: Community Responds to Report Revealing Complicity between Canadian Embassy in Excellon Violations against La Sierrita - By Ejido La Sierrita de Galeana, Tlahualilo, Durango, Mining Watch Canada, February 25, 2015
• Palisades Nuclear Power Plant denies wage lawsuit claims - By Jim Hayden, Holland Sentinel, February 24, 2015
• The Paris climate talks and the failure of states - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, February 25, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC